When coding in JSTL you often want to use conditional logic (I'm thinking and the like) to be able to structure your page correctly. Auto-generated getter & setter methods will normally create isX() methods for the getters of boolean values (at least in Eclipse it does) but can you access this method directly from JSTL without writing a getX() version?

Does JSTL support 'is' boolean methods though? Ask a random poll of Java we developers and you will get conflicting answers so I decided to investigate, want the short answer?

YES - JSTL does support accessing isX() methods directly as if you were accessing a getX() method, but only if the return type of the isX() method is a primative boolean. If you return an object of any kind (such as Boolean isObjectBooleanTrue()) then JSTL fails to find the method and will give you a rather nasty JSP exception:

javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: The class 'com.andrewbeacock.BooleanTest' does

not have the property 'objectBooleanTrue'.

So yes, 'is' methods work in JSTL but make sure you ONLY return primitive booleans from them.